Bible skeptics enjoy trumping the variety of species in our modern world as the main objection to Noah’s Ark being a factual occurrence. The understanding of the “kinds” described in the beginning of the Bible is becoming clearer and clearer – thanks to modern science and the exploration of DNA. It has been documented that polar bears and grizzly (Kodiak) bears have interbred, not only in zoos, but rarely in the wild.
Zookeepers in Reynosa, Mexico, recently witnessed a female zebra give birth to a “zonkey.” So far, this rare hybrid animal appears to be in good health.1 Meanwhile, an Irish farmer’s sheep chases its baby “geep,” sired by a goat.2 What do zonkeys and geeps have to do with Noah’s Ark?
The zebra mother had grown familiar with a neighboring dwarf albino donkey. Although its father was colorless, the zonkey progeny has striped legs and a mostly brown torso.1 Zebras and donkeys actually have different numbers of chromosomes, making fertilization quite challenging, but cellular machinery sometimes somehow finds a way to form a viable offspring. It appears life was designed to do just that.
Similarly, the typical goat has 60 chromosomes, and most domestic sheep have but 54. Modern science has attached separate genus names for the two varieties, but the fact that they can interbreed demonstrates that they descended from a single kind. They both fall under a broader category: the subfamily called “Caprinae.”
Family names, or in this case the subfamily, for animals seems to best approximate the Genesis kind. Adding those of air-breathing, land-dwelling animals yields a population that would not even take up half the Ark’s calculated volume.3
Nevertheless, Bible skeptics discount the Ark, insisting that it could not possibly have carried all the required creatures. When asked to estimate how many creatures entered the vessel, they sometimes suggest millions—an unrealistic number by far. But they sometimes add sea creatures to their tallies, and they may also be counting various versions of sheep, goats, zebras, donkeys, and horses separately.
Noah and his sons only needed two of each kind, and if two creatures can interbreed, they essentially belong to the same kind. Noah’s family also only needed land-dwelling, air-breathing animals. The text says, “Of the birds after their kind, of animals after their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive.”4 That rules out fish and a host of other water creatures, which comprise the largest chunk of currently tallied animal names—Nemo and Flipper need not apply.
How did today’s animal varieties arise, anyway? Since creatures continue to diversify into newly named varieties as they pioneer new environments and breed with neighbors of their own general kind, it stands to reason that the few number of animals on the ark rapidly diversified after the Flood into the vastly diverse animal kingdom we see today. For example, over a thousand named species of finches and sparrows have been linked through breeding studies to a single, interbreeding kind.5 And that’s where rare animals like zonkeys and geeps come in, showing that today’s varieties trace back to basic kinds.
Were horses, zebras, donkeys, sheep and goats on the ark separately? Maybe, but based on these rare cross breeds, perhaps the two basic kinds were represented by animals that looked more like zonkeys and geeps.
As we learn more and more about chromosomes – it shouldn’t stretch any Bible believer’s understanding to know where the “giants” of Noah’s day came from. “Kinds” are why all the animals were able to fit, comfortably, on Noah’s Ark.
The animals, and even the human beings of modern history (post-flood) have been closely interbreeding for thousands and thousands of years – mostly due to geographic isolation. What went on the Ark – both animals and people – looked much different from what we see now.
GENESIS 7:13-15
13 In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark;
14 They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort.
15 And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life.
You can have confidence that every Word of your Bible is true – despite the tenacious efforts of the wicked to prove otherwise.
And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged; 2 The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained; 3 And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.
4 And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat. 5 And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.
“It is significant that the Ark is said to have “rested,” as though it had been laboring for five months in accomplishing its work of saving its occupants from sin and corruption. This is the second mention of “rest” in Scripture, the first being when God rested after His work of creation. (Genesis 2:2,3; actually these are two different, though synonymous, Hebrew words) If the Ark is a true type of Christ, as previously intimated, this is most appropriate. As God “finished” His work of creation and as the Ark “finished” its mission, so Christ “finished” (John 19:30) His work of salvation.” -Henry Morris, The Genesis Record
Before anyone gets excited, the above timeline only demonstrates the time relating to Noah and the flood – not from the beginning of Creation!! And these are days – not years!!
6 And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made: 7 And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth. 8 Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground; 9 But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark. 10 And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; 11 And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. 12 And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more.
The first bird Noah released, the raven, did not return. Ravens are carrion eaters, and would have found plentiful food. The first dove would not even lite on a dead body of any kind. Which is why she returned.
13 And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry. 14 And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried.
15 And God spake unto Noah, saying, 16 Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee. 17 Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth. 18 And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him: 19 Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.
20 And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in His heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. 22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
Genesis 8: 1-22
Before Noah even built a shelter, he built an altar, and offered sacrifice. The ark represents the safety of dwelling in Christ, while the burnt offering represents Christ’s sacrificial death for our sins. Noah teaches us that God comes before everything.
Verse 22 – God promises that “while the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”
The demonic concepts of “global warming” and “climate change” are yet again man’s efforts to become gods. If the Omniscient, Omnipotent, and Omnipresent Lord God Almighty says that the earth will continue – it will continue.
After more than a year in the ark, Noah’s family finally stepped out on dry land! Talk about faith!
6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. 7 By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before Me in this generation.
The Lord says “Come thou . . .into the ark;” He does not say go in – because the Spirit of the Lord Himself is already inside! Genesis 7: 1
2 Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. 3 Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.4 For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth. Genesis 7: 2-4
v.2 – the seven clean animals are for sacrifice, first instituted by God, in the Garden of Eden. ( Gen. 3)
v. 4 – seven more days are given to the people to repent, before the judgement.
v.4 – forty in the Bible always means testing, probation or proving, and judging.
5 And Noah did according unto all that the Lord commanded him. 6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
7 And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. 8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth, 9 There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. 12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
13 In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark; 14 They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort. 15 And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. 16 And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the Lord shut him in. Genesis 7: 5-16
The number seven is very significant to the Lord. In just these early chapters of Genesis we see these profound occurrences:
God rested on the seventh day of creation (Gen. 2:2)
God asked Adam a question in seven words, “Who told thee that thou wast naked?” (Gen. 3:11)
God asked Eve a question with seven words, “What is this that thou hast done?” (Gen. 3:13)
God’s sentence upon the serpent was in sixty-three words, 9 x 7, (Gen. 3:14-15)
God protected Cain’s life with a sevenfold judgment, (Gen. 4:24)
[God the Master Mathematician, Dr. Noah Hutchings, p. 82]
159 Consider how I love Thy precepts: quicken me, O Lord, according to Thy lovingkindness. 160 Thy Word is true from the beginning: and every one of Thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.
The Vine Vigil 